President Donald Trump. Photo / Getty Images
President Trump has hired Hulk Hogan's former attorney Charles Harder for his $20 million suit against porn star Stormy Daniels.
Harder, who famously won a huge payout for the former wrestler that resulted in the bankruptcy of Gawker, joined Trump's legal team alongside his personal attorney Michael Cohen.
Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for Daniels, said the addition of Harder was a "bullying tactic" aimed at "hiding the truth from the public," the
New York Post
reports.
Daniels has said in court papers that she slept with Trump and signed an agreement just days before the 2016 election to stay silent about the affair in exchange for $139,000
Cohen has said he wants Trump and Daniels' dispute to go into private arbitration.
Harder hasn't yet commented on the case. He is a seasoned entertainment lawyer who helped win a $149 million verdict against Gawker Media for wrestler Hulk Hogan, whose real name is Bollea, after publication of portions a sex tape.
The publication ultimately folded.
He also represented Melania Trump and was hired in October by Jared Kushner, who was being interviewed by congressional investigators over alleged ties with Russia.
Meanwhile, the president's personal lawyer has accused the porn star of violating nondisclosure agreement 20 times, and claimed the right to seek $21million in damages.
Cohen, Trump's longtime personal attorney made the claim in papers filed in federal court Friday, according to the Washington Post. He says each time she violated the agreement she is liable for $1million in damages, and Cohen is claiming she violated it 20 times.
Cohen had formed a limited liability corporation to strike the nondisclosure agreement with Daniels in 2016, just days before the presidential election, over her alleged affair with Trump.
Cohen, through his limited liability company Essential Consultants, says he wants the dispute with Daniels to be moved out of court, and out of the public eye, and back into private arbitration.
In a separate filing, Charles Harder, another attorney for Trump, said he agrees with Cohen's push to return the proceedings to private arbitration.
Cohen, through his company Essential Consultants, on Friday filed a removal to federal court. The filing, which is posted below, states that the agreement contains an arbitration provision and EC had initiated arbitration proceedings prior to Clifford's lawsuit. In arbitration, EC is seeking compensatory damages, liquidated damages and injunctive relief.
Clifford's attorney Michael Avenatti has been making the rounds with national press, and she taped an interview with
60 Minutes
that's set to air on March 25.
Depending on the contents of that interview, and notwithstanding it is unclear if the 20 times she supposedly violated the NDA includes the 60 Minutes interview, Cohen could end up tacking on additional damages.
Friday's federal filing by Cohen reads: "Clifford expressly agreed in the Settlement Agreement to liquidated damages in the amount of "One-Million Dollars ($1,000,000)" for "each breach" of the confidentiality provisions of the Settlement Agreement.
"Therefore, EC and/or Defendant Trump have the right to seek liquidated damages against Clifford for her numerous breaches in an amount to be proven with certainty at the Pending Arbitration Proceeding, but which is approximated to already be in excess of twenty million dollars."
Cohen paid Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, $139,000 through an LLC he set up in exchange for an agreement not to discuss her alleged relationship with Trump or share any texts or images she may have.
Daniels is suing Trump in a California court to try to undue or declare void her NDA.
Earlier on Friday, Daniels' attorney, Michael Avenatti, claimed his client had been threatened with physical harm.
He spoke to both CNN's New Day and the Associated Press about the allegations but stopped short of providing more details.
He said she had been "physically threatened," but would not comment on whether the threats came from anyone tied to the president, the Trump campaign or the Trump Organization.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has been seeking to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement she signed days before the 2016 presidential election in order to discuss their relationship, which she said began in 2006 and continued for about a year.
Daniels will discuss the threats during her segment on CBS' "60 Minutes."
Avenatti said he was confident that people would believe her after watching her interview.
"There's the act and there's the cover-up, and the American people are going to learn about both in the interview and beyond," the lawyer said during yet another interview with MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Friday.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Friday that she had no knowledge of the situation and hadn't spoken with the president about it.
But, she said, "obviously we take the safety and security of any person seriously" and "certainly would condemn anyone threatening any individual."
In the lawsuit Daniels filed in Los Angeles last week, in which she she is seeking to invalidate the agreement so she could "set the record straight," she has also offered to return the $139,000 she was paid for agreeing not to discuss the relationship.
Daniels' lawsuit claimed the "hush agreement" she signed in October 2016 is legally invalid because it was only signed by herself and Cohen, Trump's attorney, but was not signed by Trump himself.
The lawsuit refers to her beginning an "intimate relationship" with Trump in 2006 that continued "well into the year 2007."
She said the relationship included encounters in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and Beverly Hills, California.
Trump married his current wife, Melania Trump, in 2005, and their son, Barron, was born in 2006.
According to Daniels' timeline, the alleged affair would have begun just months after Melania gave birth to Barron.
Sanders said last week that Trump has "made very well clear that none of these allegations are true."
In addition to Daniels, six women have contacted Avenatti with similar stories, he said. Two of the women appear to have signed nondisclosure agreements, Avenatti said.
Daniels also has previously denied through a lawyer that she and Trump had an affair, but Avenatti has said that was to meet the terms of the nondisclosure agreement.
Cohen has denied there was ever an affair and said he paid the $139,000 out of his own pocket.
He has said neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Daniels and he was not reimbursed for the payment.
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